Single Copy Sales

January 29, 1989

More than 20 percent of the newspapers sold by The Daily Press Inc. are picked up by people who slip quarters in vending machines or pay for them one at a time - perhaps while buying sandwiches and groceries - at convenience stores.

That's slightly more than the national average. Robert Matera, in charge of sigle-copy sales of the Daily Press and The Times-Herald can't say for sure why these papers sell so well that way, but he has theories:

* The large number of two-income households may mean that people are picking up their papers with their morning coffee en route to work.

* A large number of elderly readers are buying the paper as part of their morning-ritual walks.

* The location of vending machines make it easy to do.

"We look for patterns of traffic...see where people are walking" in deciding where to place newspaper racks, Matera says. "If, for some reason, a customer does not desire a home-delivered subscription, we want to make it as convenient as possible to purchase a newspaper."

There now are more than 1,200 Daily Press/The Times-Herald vending machines from Nags Head, N.C., to Richmond. The newspapers also are on sale in more than 400 stores. The company places vending machines on private and public property for customer convenience - on private property with the permission of owners.